When comparing Ableton Live vs Bitwig Studio, the Slant community recommends Ableton Live for most people. In the question“What are the best DAWs? ”Ableton Live is ranked 8th while Bitwig Studio is ranked 10th. The most important reason people chose Ableton Live is:

Ableton's session view gives a much quicker, more flexible way of experimenting with ideas than a typical linear interface. In session view, each instrument part is a separate entity that can be mixed and matched with other parts without having to rearrange anything. Any and every effect is consolidated into one clean looking interface.
It allows users to experiment with effects and other manipulations very quickly. Because of this, Ableton is known as one of the most creative DAWs out there.

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Specs

CompatibilityMac, Windows

Extract MIDI from audioYes

Included sounds54 GB

Keyboard ShortcutsSort of. Programable per project, but not globally as of v9.7.6

Pros

Pro

Great creative DAW workflow

Ableton's session view gives a much quicker, more flexible way of experimenting with ideas than a typical linear interface. In session view, each instrument part is a separate entity that can be mixed and matched with other parts without having to rearrange anything. Any and every effect is consolidated into one clean looking interface.

It allows users to experiment with effects and other manipulations very quickly. Because of this, Ableton is known as one of the most creative DAWs out there.

Pro

Advanced automation

Pro

Great for sampling

The Ableton DAW offers a great sampling experience, which can be approached in many different ways. Audio can be directly chopped, quantized, warped, and even chopped into MIDI clips. Ableton's built in sampler also allows clean pitching along with useful loop functions.

Pro

Optimized for playing live music

While all DAWs are capable of playing music live, Ableton Live is the most DJ friendly DAW out there as it allows mixing and mashing various MIDI or audio clips together in real-time while still making sure that they're in sync.

Pro

Max for Live lets users build custom tools

With Max for Live, users can create custom synthesizers, audio effects, sequencers, samplers, and more. Max for Live is a feature that is available starting with Live 9 Suite.

Pro

Advanced content browser

The browser lets users choose from live Sets, tracks, clips, devices, presets, samples, etc. There is also an auto-play function for audio clips that enables users to browse samples quickly. The search function is also handy, but only for clips that are labeled appropriately.

Pro

Many software specific controllers

Many MIDI controllers have been developed for the exclusive purpose of being used with Ableton. Some popular Live controllers include Push, APC40, and Launchpad.

Pro

Minimum skeuomorphism

Skeuomorphism is described as retaining antiquated aesthetic features on an updated version of a device. For DAWs, this happens when an interface is littered with analog nobs, wires, and other things that are reminiscent of older technology. While this can be considered a stylistic choice for some DAWs, it tends to block progress towards better practices in music production.

Pro

Outstanding EQ

Ableton's new EQ includes an integrated spectrum analyzer so users can see exactly which frequencies need to be adjusted. Additionally, this EQ cuts by 48 db. Up until Ableton Live 9, the EQ only cut by 12 db.

Pro

Pro

Dual monitor support

Starting with Live 9, users can see session and arrangement views at the same time with dual monitor support.

Pro

Exemplary time stretching facilities

Not only can the time stretching can be done in real-time, there are about a dozen of TC/E algorithms to choose from.

Pro

Endless creativity

After some training this daw can be used for doing anything. There are basically no limits.

Pro

Supports "scales" plugin

If you want to write in a specific scale, choose it from the scale plugin and your music will automatically be configured to be that key.

Pro

Multiple "workflows" or ways of achieving an outcome

Not everyone realizes this, but anything can be done in multiple ways in Live. Multiple ways of playing samples, multiple ways of slicing samples, multiple ways of sequencing MIDI, etc.

Pro

Can play a midi note from the middle

Since Live 10, you can play a midi note without having to play it from the start.

Pro

Multitude of tutorial videos online

For any question there are many videos on youtube that will tell you how to do it.

Pro

VST3 support as of Ableton 10.1

Pro

Supports expressive MIDI - MPE

Makes use of the Seaboard, Linnstrument, Continuum and other modern expressive controllers.

Pro

Cross platform and highly compatible

The Bitwig DAW runs on Mac, PC, and, Linux. This DAW also has the distinction of being one of the only DAWs that can run 32 bit and 64 bit plugins at the same time.

Pro

Supports multiple midi instruments on one track

Being able to add multiple midi instruments on the same track is a nice feature. It allows for much easier setup for VSTs like Cthulhu. It's also nice to be able to have multiple instruments setup that can be toggled.

Pro

Very intuitive/user-friendly

Pro

Highly modular

Pro

Touch screen support

Pro

Open multiple projects

Pro

Great modulation system

Pro

Ableton Link Support

Pro

Many high quality free sound packs

Pro

Very efficient preset browser

Pro

Very good integration with Eurorack

Pro

You can write your own controller support in Java

Pro

Very powerful voice stacking mechanism

Pro

Plugin Crash Protection

Plugins can be sandboxed

Pro

Very active development

Pro

State of the art time stretching

Pro

Powerful devices/presets/sample browser

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Cons

Con

Expensive

At around $749, the Ableton Live Suite DAW is more expensive than other DAWs. Ableton Live Standard can be bought for $449, and Ableton Live Intro can be bought for $99.

Con

No comping / playlist feature when tracking

Con

Plugins on frozen tracks are loaded and unloaded as the session opens slowing down opening and creating DSP limitations.

For example: If you freeze more than the allowed number of plugins on a UAD DSP device, when you open your session, Ableton will open and close all the frozen plugins on every channel even though they are not active in the session. The UAD control panel application displays the DSP usage of the hardware. During loading the levels (bars) will fluctuate by extreme amounts and typically will produce errors once the Ableton session is loaded.

After the session is loaded, UAD plugins that should be running are disabled because there wasn't enough DSP available during load.

The user then has to open and look at each UAD plug in to see if they are disabled and turn them off and on again to enable them. This illustrates there is enough room for the DSP load for unfrozen plugins, but that the loading process was at fault.

Con

Limited routing

Tracks can go into groups and sub-groups (as of Live 10), and sends are available, but that's the extent of routing.

Con

No VST3 Support

Con

Not very stable

Plug-ins can crash the whole process.

Con

Can't save keyboard shortcuts globally

Shortcut keys have to be set per project, for every project (Cmd-K on Mac) and shortcuts can't be exported to other projects unless you set it up in one and save that as a template, but if you ever add another key, you have to add that individually to all hundreds of your other projects.

Con

Interface looks terrible

It really looks shoddy. The fonts are much too small to be comfortable and there is no return to beginning button included in the navigation controls. (But font size can be increased)

Con

Sometimes very slow reaction, if you switch from one track to another with APC- or Push-Controller

Con

Max makes startup longer

Con

Worst punch-in ever

You can't start recording other than where you start playing. This absurdity causes everyone to use the work around of making extra tracks just to punch in a part. Huge waste of time and design flaw. Do Ableton designers use their own product?

Con

Unreliable for professional production

Full of random bugs. Bad performance when using many tracks.

Con

Pricey

Pricey in comparison with other major DAWs.

Con

Very bad performance when working with several tracks

Con

UI gets frozen, VSTs crash all the time

Very frustrating to work with.

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